


Words Of Comfort

by MiraculousLadydork



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Identity Reveal, Not a huge amount of angst honestly but there is some, One Shot, Total Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2016-03-22
Packaged: 2018-05-28 07:33:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6320236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiraculousLadydork/pseuds/MiraculousLadydork
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of Volpina, Chat Noir is left wondering why Ladybug was acting so strangely, but ends up finding out more than he bargained for. Not that he's complaining, of course.</p><p>---</p><p>Set post-Volpina, but before Marinette takes the book to Fu! Inspired by Marinette's near sacrifice of her miraculous for 'Adrien'!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Words Of Comfort

**Author's Note:**

> I AM STILL CONTINUING FALLEN, but this was in my head and I couldn't help myself. I hope you like it!  
> If people like it enough I may write more - I plan to leave it like this for now, but let me know if you do!?

It was night, and Chat Noir was perched on a railing at the top of the Eiffel Tower. He was just above where Volpina had been, dangling her illusion Adrien over the edge. The lights of Paris spread out below him like the shimmering raindrops caught in a spider's web and the light breeze was playing with his hair and cat tail belt, which streamed out behind him as a result. He looked up, tipping his head backwards slightly to let the night breeze roll over him, and noted with a slight pang that the colour of the sky was the same shade of midnight blue as Ladybug's hair.

Ladybug. What had she been thinking, nearly giving up her Miraculous without even considering other options or listening to him when he told her it was an illusion? She completely lost her head, which made no sense to Chat, because to him Ladybug never seemed to lose her cool over anything. And after the way she confronted Lila over her lies... Maybe she'd just had an off day, he thought. That could happen to anyone, even the most incredible girl in the world. He wasn't going to deny it, he was worried about her. Maybe he should see if she was around, and talk to her. Maybe he could help?

As his baton started to ring, the thought 'speak of the devil and he will appear' leapt to mind. With a short laugh, he answered, and Ladybug's beautiful masked face sprang into view, her midnight hair blending in to the night sky behind her, just as he had predicted.

“ _Allô_ , my lady!” He said, and his voice sounded false cheery to his own ears.

She rolled her eyes. “Where are you?” Straight to the point, that was his Ladybug.

“I'm at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Maybe you could come up here and we can... uh,” He deliberated over finding the right word for a moment, “Talk.”

She raised her eyebrows, “Are you okay, Chat Noir?” She asked, tilting her head to the side slightly.

Involuntarily, he smiled at her. “You're so selfless, my lady.” He sighed, letting his thoughts form his words.

She recoiled hard, and the concerned, caring look in her eyes vanished, being replaced by an offended and mildly hurt expression. “I'll be there in a second.” She informed him, coolly, before hanging up.

Chat remained staring at the blank baton for a while, confused about her sudden change in demeanour. He really did need to talk to her, maybe something was really wrong.

Moments later, a small yoyo with red and black spots came whizzing through the air and looped itself around the railing next to him, shortly followed by Ladybug herself. She landed on her feet beside him, gazing him up and down, her eyes narrowed.

“You're okay.” She said, her voice accusatory. She looked at him expectantly, her hands on her hips.

Chat shook his head, “I never said I wasn't,” He told her, honestly. “I just wanted to talk to you.”

“Talk to me?” She sounded surprised. “Why? Is something wrong?”

“You've seemed... off, lately,” He said, watching as she delicately clambered over the railing and sat down beside him. She gazed out across Paris, where the lights were still twinkling below them like a reflection of the stars above them. She didn't acknowledge his words, so he continued. “With the whole Volpina thing, you said you humiliated her in front of her crush Adrien...” - it was still weird referring to himself as a separate person - “That doesn't sound like you.”

“She was lying about me for attention.” Ladybug said quickly, still staring determinedly ahead. “I don't like liars.”

“I know,” Chat affirmed, gently, “But also when she had Adrien here, you did lose your head a little bit, nearly giving up your miracu-”

“Do you think I wanted to!?” She jumped in, angrily. Chat was taken aback at the venom in her voice. She was still staring out over Paris, seemingly looking anywhere except at him. It was then that he noticed the unshed tears, sparkling like jewels in the corners of her eyes, and that her posture had changed; her shoulders were hunched up, her feet tucked closely to the tower. Her hands were gripping the railings so tightly that her knuckles were straining against the fabric of her suit.

“Do you think I _wanted_ to give up my miraculous!? Of course not! But she had Adrien. Adrien! What was I supposed to do!?” She shook slightly with the force of her words, doubling up over her knees. “What was I supposed to do?” She added, quietly, as a few tears escaped her eyes and fell, glittering like crystals as they plummeted towards the ground.

She had said his name with such reverence that Chat could do nothing but stare at her, his green eyes wide and his lips slightly parted; the picture of surprise. Ladybug knew who he was, and cared about him. Really cared about him. Recovering himself, he removed a hand from the railing – where it seemed to have become stuck in shock – and placed it on her shoulder in what was meant to be a comforting gesture. Instead of relaxing as he hoped, she stiffened under his touch.

“Don't.”

He removed his hand at once, but still letting it hover a few inches above her shoulder, unsure of what to do. “My lady?”

“I don't deserve it.” She said, shuddering as she drew in a deep breath, “I'm just as bad as any of them. I deliberately humiliated her in front of Adrien because I couldn't stand to see them together - to see him lied to like that. I – I know it was just an illusion but – but what if it hadn't been? It was my fault. I would've put his life in danger all because I was... _jealous_.” She whispered the last word like it was something dirty.

As she turned her head to finally look at him, tears brimming over the edge of her mask, he found himself startled by her expression. She was genuinely horrified over what she had done, to the point of beating herself up over something that hadn't even happened. Adrien's – _his_ – life had never been in danger because he was standing right next to her the whole time, only under a mask as Chat Noir.

“But you didn't. It was real,” He reassured her, tenderly. “I'm sure he thinks no less of you.” _If anything, he thinks more of you for what you're saying now,_ Chat thought, but duly kept it to himself.

Ladybug turned her head away again, stifling a sob as she did so. “If he does,” She said, shakily, “Then I really don't deserve him.”

 _Deserve?_ Chat thought, confused. _What does she mean by – OH._ It finally dawned on him, and he realised he was staring at her in complete shock again. She couldn't, really... could she? Why would Ladybug – unless they really did know each other without the masks.

“You're in love with him..” He breathed, and was instantly appalled at what he had just said, clapping his gloved hands over his mouth as if trying to claw the words out of thin air and back into his mouth. But no, that wasn't possible, and so there they hung - in the dead space between the two of them like some kind of poison.

She had gasped when she heard him say it and had meant to deny it, had meant to tell him that she was just disgusted over what she had done, but when she turned to tell him so, and saw him staring at her with his eyes wide with dismay and his hands pressed to his mouth, she couldn't do it. How could she lie to him when she had just told him so vehemently that she hated liars, and had even caused an akuma attack because of it? She couldn't possibly.

And so, instead of a denial, she exclaimed, “I'm so sorry, Chat!”

There was a pause. A moment of awful silence, where Ladybug watched intently as Chat tried to process the confession he had just heard. She was sure this wasn't where he had intended for the conversation to go when he had called her to his side, but she wasn't sure she could stop it now she had started. So much she had wanted to tell him had been boiling under the surface, just waiting for the right moment in order to come out. She wasn't entirely sure this _was_ the right moment, but it was a moment nonetheless and so she was determined to seize it in case another one never arose. 'Waiting for the right moment' was just an excuse, and one that Marinette refused to hide behind any longer. 

“I wanted to tell you – really, I did! - but I just didn't know how.” She blurted, aware she was adding more for Chat to process but no longer able to contain it, “But how do you tell someone who likes you, your partner, someone who means so much to you and would be so hurt by it, that you like someone else? You don't, that's how.” She couldn't look at him as she spoke because she couldn't bear to see the wounded look on his face that was sure to come, and so turned away again, staring out across the beautiful night skyline of Paris.

“So yes, you're right, I _am_ in love with Adrien Agreste. If he wasn't around...” She bit her lip. Should she really be telling him this? But it was now or never, so she continued, “Then maybe I would see this... see _you_ differently. But it's _better_ this way, Chat. It's wrong for you to like me so much when you don't even know me as anything other than Ladybug. Under the mask I'm not like her, I'm not what you think I am and honestly, I'd just disappoint you. I don't deserve you, either.” 

There was more, she knew there was, but she didn't know how to turn it into words. She waited, her head tilted back to hold her tears in and her hands gripping the railings so hard she thought her knuckles might burst through her costume. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally spoke.

“I don't think you could ever disappoint me, my lady.” He said, quietly. He shouldn't be smiling, and yet he was. She thought she just delivered earth shattering information to him, and if she had said anyone else's name it would've been. But she didn't. She said his name. His real name. Instead of devastated, he felt positively _giddy_. She loved him. Ladybug loved him. And despite what she said, there was no way that the girl beneath the mask would disappoint him.

She turned to him in surprise, and yet somehow she wasn't surprised. She had expected him to hate her, but realised now that she wasn't expecting that at all. Of course he would say such a thing, he was Chat Noir. He was always by her side and she could always count on him. And only then did the final thing she wanted to tell him slide into place.

“Th – That's not all, Chat.” She said, in an unsteady whisper. “I think – I think I'm falling for you, and I'm scared.”

This time he really must have misheard her, because it sounded an awful lot like she was saying she loved both sides of him, and that was more than he could possibly hope for. 

“What if you didn't have to be scared?” He answered softly, reaching across himself to cup her cheek with his hand. This time, she did not object to his touch, and his heart flipped over inside his chest. “I love you, Ladybug, inside and out, and knowing who you really are wouldn't change that. If anything, it would be more of you to love.”

“Chat...” Was it his hand on her face that was pulling her towards him, or was she leaning towards him of her own accord? She couldn't tell any more. She felt shaky all over, they were almost nose to nose... she should be pulling away but she couldn't help herself – and then... and then -

Unknowingly echoing an earlier thought of hers, Chat Noir decided that it was now or never, and with a single breath released his transformation. He was engulfed in green light for a moment, a moment long enough to feel Ladybug freeze under his hand. As the light faded and he found her very wide eyes, he thought for one second that he'd taken it too far. That he'd really scared her.

Then she smiled. Okay, it was only a small, nervous smile and her eyes were still as wide as saucers, but it was still a smile.

“Of course it's you,” She murmured, and yet he could hear every word with perfect clarity, “Only you, Adrien, could make me fall for you twice.”

He laughed then, and it was like a breath of fresh air. He gazed at her, more in love that he had ever imagined, and watched with bated breath as she closed her eyes and everything was suddenly bathed in pink light.

It was no longer Ladybug sitting in front of him, but Marinette Dupain-Cheng, who was staring at him with a very strange expression on her face; a mix of nervousness, fear, and hopefulness.

“I'm sorry I'm not -” She began, but he swiftly placed a now un-gloved thumb over her mouth as a way of silencing her. Her eyes widened even more, but she didn't press on even after he moved his thumb back to its original resting place.

“No,” Adrien said, “You're perfect.” And he swiftly closed the gap between them, covering her lips with his own.

It was there, on the very edge of the Eiffel Tower, that Adrien Agreste and Marinette Dupain-Cheng, also known as Ladybug and Chat Noir, shared their first – but not their last – kiss. And not that Marinette would ever admit it, but it may just be one of the reasons why the Eiffel Tower is her number one favourite place in Paris.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!? Good or bad, and kudos are always appreciated!


End file.
